Nurture

Spike was still asleep. Good. The last thing she wanted to do was wake him.
There would be far too many questions, and besides, he desperately needed
the rest. With tear filled eyes she took at the array of wounds that Glory
had left on him, marring practically every square inch of exposed flesh. She
winced in sympathy.

With practiced tenderness, she eased the still sleeping vampire out of his
torn black T-shirt. How could anyone have been done this to him? Burn
marks, stab wounds, bruises, broken bones... the list went on and on. She had
never been able to understand cruelty in any form, but this? This was almost
unthinkable. With a tremendously light touch, she began to tentatively bathe
his injuries, cleaning out the grime that had become imbedded in them. He
had been far too weak to tend to himself earlier, and she didn't want him to
risk an infection. Somehow, she managed to cleanse his wounds without him
ever waking.

Next, she turned her attention to the bruises that had swollen his eyes
almost completely shut. A cool compress rested against his brow, a vain
attempt to bring down the hideous swelling, but still providing some measure
of comfort. A small smile appeared on her face when she realized he would
probably have far preferred she used a raw steak instead: a snackable
bandage.

Still smiling slightly, she moved on to the puncture wound in his abdomen.
Sighing, she knew there wasn't all that much she could do for that particular
problem, but at least the vampire's fast rate of healing would end that
suffering quickly. She put a clean bandage on it, fastening it in place
firmly yet softly.

The burns and scalds that appeared on his face and chest were an angry red.
Crushing the leaves of an aloe plant, she carefully spread the soothing
extract on the marks made by Glory's torture, paying extra attention to what
appeared to be a cigar burn on his chest. Repulsed once again at the
animal-like behavior that had caused the blemish, a hiss of anger passed her
lips.

Finally, she looked at the marks that the glass had left on his lip and
cheek. Examining the skin carefully, she was happy to note that there were
no shards still imbedded in his face. Given time, he would heal. Tears came
to her eyes once again as she thought of how much he had suffered and how
bravely he had faced it, even the specter of impending death, with a stubborn
refusal to give Glory the smallest piece of information about the key. She
knew that he had been a very, very bad boy in his day, and in many ways still
was. Frowning slightly, she remembered the robot. Now that had not been
good at all. However, Rome wasn't built in a day, and he'd come a very long
way down a none-too-easy path.

She had done all she could to ease his pain. Reversing her actions of
earlier, she pulled a clean shirt over his head and then flipped his pillow
over, exposing a fresh, cool side to his cheek. She quickly checked the
refrigerator and was pleased to see he had an ample supply of blood for the
next several days. Although she wished that she could have done more for
him, she knew it was time to leave. She pressed one gentle hand against his
forehead, soothing him like a child with a fever. His eyelids fluttered open.

"Mum?" he murmured, taken back for a moment to the days of his childhood in
London when his mother had stayed beside him through a bout of the flu.
"That you?"

"Thank you for protecting my babies," she whispered quietly in his ear before
dissolving into thin air.

"What the... I'm going nuttier than Dru," Spike groaned to himself. "For just
one second there, I could have sworn I saw..."

His words died away as he saw the clean shirt he was wearing and felt the
bandages that now dressed his wounds.

"Joyce?"